Identification of Fungal Species

Species identification was based on morphological features of the fruiting bodies, which was produced on the infected plant tissues, including stromata (arrangement and size), conceptacle (presence or absence), conidiomata (color, size, and shape), ostioles (number and diameter), locules (number and arrangement type), conidiophores, and conidia (size and shape), supplemented by cultural characteristics such as colony color, texture, and the presence or absence of airborne hyphae (Mostert et al., 2001 (link); Zhang et al., 2007 ; Zhu et al., 2020 (link)). The morphological features were observed under a Leica stereomicroscope (M205 FA) (Leica microsystem, Wetzlar, Genmany). Micro-morphological observations determined by a Nikon Eclipse 80i compound microscope. Measuring 30 conidiomata/ascomata and 50 conidia/ascospores, determined by length, width, and length/width ratio (L/W ratio). Recording the colony diameters and describing the color was based on the color charts of Rayner (1970) after 1–2 weeks on PDA in darkness. The results were edited manually by Adobe Bridge CS v. 6 and Adobe Photoshop CS v. 5.